The Yari Samurai

I wanted to try a Yari Samurai focused Legendary play-through, essentially for aesthetics. I was surprised to find the build incredibly viable.

I was easily taking on 2 full Chosokabe katana/bow sam stacks without any advanced tactics with 1 Yari Sam “doom” stack. I have revised my previously negative opinion on the Yari Sam, and now consider it one of the best units in the campaign game.

Here’s why: It has the best defense for a standard sized unit, and it is fast enough to chase down and kill enemies during and after a battle. Attack is a more important stat than defense, but attack is much easier to increase in the campaign, so the high defense becomes a standout advantage in prolonged melee.

The key is that Shogun 2’s campaign offers a number of ways to boost a units attack and charge bonus. For attack the obvious options are weaponsmiths +4, jujitsu studios +2, and infantry commander +3. For charge bonus the obvious options come right off the tech tree in two places and from the legendary sword school, in addition to the Date ability, for a total of +8.

In practice, on a charge vs experienced Katana Samurai, the Yari Sam would route the katana unit with minimal casualties in 30 seconds or less. Similarly Oda Yari Ashigaru in wall formation could be safely charged from the front with an expectation of 5 to 15 Samurai casualties before an Ashigaru route.

The tactics were simple, a single line, as wide as the space allowed. Total envelopment if the enemy wasn’t defending the flank, and a frontal charge if they were. Siege defense was consistently easy with a full army sallee, though siege attacks were much harder than a bow-heavy army would face. Routes were easy to exploit with the Yari Sam speed advantage across the entire front as well, so few enemy armies were ever able to regroup.